Strabane actually had a railway before Belfast - reaching the town in 1845,
from Londonderry. The largest rail junction in Ireland
during the first half of 20th century, Strabane catered
for 4 different railway companies: Great Northern Railway
(which was broad gauge) and County Donegal Railways,
the Strabane and Letterkenny Railway and the line to
the Victoria Road, Derry (which were all narrow gauge).
Evoking memories of Strabane railway ....

Willie John Carlin joined the railway in 1944 at the
age of 15. He only left 20 years later because of the
closure of Strabane Station. He worked as a Signalman,
ensuring the safe passage of trains up and down the
line. It was a job he was proud to do.

YP&M has learnt of the sad news that Willie John
Carlin passed away on Saturday 21st January 2006.

The North Signal Cabin at Strabane was manned on a
24 hour basis ( three 8 hour shifts). The young Willie-John
in the photograph had 39 of those levers to operate.

Communication between signal cabins was essential before
a train could move forward down the track. A stick called
a 'staff', which was about two ft long, gave an engine
the right of way on an individual section of track,
ensuring that it wouldn't meet anything coming in the
opposite direction! These staffs were kept in the signal
cabins. If a train was approaching Willie John's signal
box, he would communicate with the next signal box along
by tapping out (in a type of morse code) the code of
the train in transit. (Each train had its own code -
identifying what type of engine it was, the load it
was carrying, etc). If the next signal cabin was happy,
it would acknowledge the code and press down a plunger
or button, interrupting the electrical supply, allowing
Willie John in his signal box to retrieve the relevant
'staff'. Willie-John would then hand this 'staff' over
to the train as it passed through (collecting the 'staff'
for the previous section of track).

James Conroy

"Sound, safe and sure" was the motive of the railwaymen, says Willie John.
Whatever your job, whether you were a driver, guard,
signalman, track maintenance crew .... safety was paramount
and procedures were laid down with that aim in mind.
Circumstances often required staff to be quick thinking
as well. In about 1910 James Conroy was on the platform
of Strabane station, close to the overbridge. Just at
the precise moment when a train was approaching, a child
wandered off down the ramp and onto the track. Conroy
managed to grab the child and roll out of the way of
the train. His heroic act is remembered in this photograph.The
overbridge (which Conroy is pictured standing in front
of) took passengers from platform to platform. However,
railway enthusiast George Haire explains how, sometimes
people liked to nip across the tracks and staff were
then told to instruct them to use the bridge.